Storm drains serve as a direct connection from roadways to waterways. Storm drains are beneficial inasmuch as they prevent roadways from flooding after the accumulation of a significant amount of rain water, yet such has a deleterious effect on the waterways into which the rain water is released. As vehicles travel on roadways, grease, oil and other noxious substances and debris are transferred onto the road surface. When rainfall accumulates, it washes these and other pollutants from the road into neighboring storm drains. In some cases, runoff may travel hundreds of feet downhill before coming into contact with a storm drain, collecting additional pollutants along the way. The storm drains, therefore, act as a conduit for the passage of pollutants directly into surrounding waterways. Thus, it is desirable to create filtering trenches in communication with a particular storm drain such that runoff and other pollutants in both solid and liquid form, can be filtered therethrough before being subsequently passed through the storm drain and ultimately released into a waterway.
Trenches come in a variety of sizes and forms, and are often quite large and expansive. For instance, trenches on the order of approximately 8 feet wide by 4 feet deep may extend a length between 200 and 400 feet. These trenches are strategically located alongside highways or other roadways and are beginning to be seen in neighborhoods, specifically, newly emerging neighborhoods. The idea is to catch the harmful material and filter it out before the water passes through the normal channels, and eventually into the natural water supply. While such trenches have proven beneficial in minimizing the pollutants dumped into waterways, the conventional manner of creating trenches requires a substantial amount of manpower, and the overall process is very time consuming, labor intensive and expensive.
Presently, once a trench has been dug, an excavator and dump truck are situated on a portion of a roadway adjacent to the trench. The excavator is used to scoop material from the back of a dump truck and dropped into the trench, one scoop at a time. Workers then manually distribute and spread the material dropped into the trench to form a layer. After one layer of filler material has been filled into the trench along its entire length, the process begins with a subsequent layer until the trench has been completely filled. As the truck and excavator are disposed on or near the road surface during the process, a portion of the roadway must be shut down while trench filling is taking place. Since this process is very time consuming, roads remain blocked for substantial periods of time, which is highly inconvenient and often leads to a substantial amount of traffic congestion.
There is therefore a need for a more time, labor and cost effective system. There is also a need for a system which is less burdensome on roadway traffic congestion. Additionally, a system is needed in which component parts function more effectively together without risking damage to one component by another.